


Daddy's Girl

by FriendLey



Series: Five Years With You [4]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-01-31 18:45:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18597241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendLey/pseuds/FriendLey
Summary: ENDGAME SPOILERS........Morgan is daddy's girl through and through.





	Daddy's Girl

Morgan was a girl, it turned out. The ultrasound was pretty clear on that. But Tony never really understood the depth of just exactly what it meant to have a daughter.

Sure, he knew she’d have a vagina instead of a penis, but he had never really thought it would change anything. He loved her all the same.

His plans definitely hadn’t changed; hot wiring and making a car were still pretty high on the list.

But he hadn’t expected her to be Daddy’s Girl.

Pepper kept saying it.

“She wants you,” she would say, handing a fussy Morgan and a bottle of breast milk over to him. “She’s gonna be such a daddy’s girl, I can tell.”

Even Rhodey and Happy said it. “She’s Daddy’s Girl through and through.”

And Tony hated it.

He didn’t want Morgan to be Daddy’s Girl. If she were a boy, Tony wouldn’t want him to be Daddy’s Boy either.

Because being Daddy’s _anything_ meant that they took after him, right? Took after all of Tony's quirks, his anxieties, his weaknesses, every messed up thing about him.

And nobody needed that. Nobody _wanted_ that.

Tony didn’t usually dwell too much on these thoughts, but the morning started out pretty badly.

“Isn’t it a little too late to watch the sun rise?” came Pepper’s voice from the patio. She had probably just finished feeding Morgan her breakfast.

Tony had given the little munchkin a bath which was when he realized just how royally screwed Morgan was with him for a father.

Pepper took the empty space beside him. She was already dressed for work and was probably going to leave if Tony hadn’t delayed her.

She gave him a studious look and then said, “Something happened in the bath, huh? What’d she do?”

Tony stared at the lake. “She did nothing. She was absolutely perfect.”

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him. “So, _you_ did something then.”

“I brushed her hair,” Tony admitted.

Pepper blinked at him. “And?”

He looked at her. “It’s not red anymore, Pepper.”

“Pardon?”

“Her hair! It’s turning brown.”

That wasn’t what Pepper expected to hear. At all.

“Well, that happens, honey. It just means that she takes more after you than she does me. Daddy’s Girl and all that.”

“Yeah, I don’t want her to!” Tony snapped. “I don’t want her to be daddy’s girl.” Realizing he had startled his wife, he apologized and looked out to the lake again.

Pepper pressed her lips together. There were good days, great, wonderful domestic days. But there were also days like this.

“This is more than just hair color, isn’t it?”

Tony nodded. After a while, he turned to Pepper and said, “I don’t want her taking anything of me. When she came out with a head full of _your_ hair, I felt so relieved because you know… it meant she was pretty safe from inheriting all the awful genes I have. It meant that she was less me and more you.”

“Don’t say that.”

“It’s true. We all know I’m not really the best combination of chromosomes.”

Pepper nudged her husband at his shoulder. “I happen to like your chromosomes.” That brought a small chuckle out of him. “Half of them’s in Morgan and half of them would still be there even if she grew to be a redhead.” She nestled beside him, taking his hand in hers. “And in case you need reminding, let me tell you that you are enough, Tony, despite all the flaws you think you have. It’s _unbelievable_ how enough you are and if Morgan inherited even just a fraction of your eyelashes or your smile… _that_ would be enough.”

“You sound like a Hamilton song.”

Pepper laughed. “Yeah, well, you got me talking about it.” She put a hand on his face, forcing him to look at her. “You know, being daddy’s girl doesn’t mean what you think it does.”

“It doesn’t?”

Pepper shook her head. “All it means is that she’s more attached to you, Tony, and that’s because she loves you, so, so, so, _so_ much.”

Tony searched her eyes for a lie he knew wasn’t even there. He grinned at her. “You’re a little jealous, aren’t you?”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “Don’t start.”

…

“Hey, what’s up Morgan?” Rhodey greeted his goddaughter, raising a fist to Morgan and saying, “Fist bump!”

The little girl repeated the words and brought her own fist to her uncle’s.

“You have to stop teaching her that,” Tony said to him but the look on his face said he didn’t really mean it.

“What? It’s cool,” said Rhodey, walking away and leaving Morgan to play in her pen. “It makes _me_ the cool uncle and it makes _her_ the cool kid on the block.”

“She’s barely two years old! She needs to be focusing on fine motor skills. Fist bump? Not a fine motor skill. Not even a gross motor skill.”

Rhodey settled on the living room couch and gave Tony a deadpan look. “You’re reading too much parenting books.”

“I’m reading early childhood development books. There’s a difference.”

“What?”

“The other one’s more sciencey.”

“Sciencey is not a word. Even my goddaughter knows that.” Rhodey turned to said goddaughter. “Hey, Morgan, is sciencey a word?”

Morgan laughed and threw a block at Rhodey in response. It hit him on the head and Tony cackled.

“That’s my girl!” Tony cheered, coming over to pick Morgan up. “Fist bump! Fist bump, Daddy!”

“Seriously?” cried an incredulous Rhodey. "Whatever happened to 'it's not a fine motor skill?'"

Tony grinned triumphantly at his best friend. “i lied. What was it that you used to say? ‘Daddy’s girl through and through?’ Yeah, you can’t bring her over to your side, Platypus.” He kissed Morgan on the cheek. “And as a reward, I am not gonna tell Mommy that I let you throw stuff just this once.”

…

“MORGAN!”

He should have told her to stay in the house while FRIDAY was upgrading.

“MORGAN!”

Oh, God, Pepper’s going to kill him. 

“MORGAN, WHERE ARE YOU?”

Was she even still in the house? What if she just vanished? Shit! It was happening all over again. But Thanos was—he’s dead—Morgan couldn’t be—Tony’s eyes landed on the lake.

His heart almost stopped beating. But the fence was unopened. She couldn’t have—

“Daddy, why you shouting?”

Tony turned so fast he almost got whiplash. There was his daughter, standing right outside her tent, the one they both had stayed in last night watching the stars. God, was it only last night?

Tony let out a sigh of relief and immediately hugged the toddler.

“Morgan, thank God, you’re okay.” He put her face between his hands and kissed her. “Don’t do that again! I was so scared, honey.”

“You scared?”

Tony nodded, releasing her and holding her by her arms, still quite hesitant to let her go. “Very scared.”

“Why very scared?”

“Because I thought I lost you and I was never going to see you again.”

Morgan frowned. She had heard a story like that before. “Like Peter?”

“Exactly like Peter.”

She hugged her dad because Mommy said that if someone was scared or sad she should hug them.

“It’s okay. I’m here,” she whispered in her dad’s ear because Mommy said to say that too.

Tony sighed. “Yes, you are.” He pulled back and gave her a look. “But next time, if you want to play, you have to tell me or mommy where you’re going to play, okay? Because FRIDAY’s sleeping and she couldn’t tell me where you were today.”

Morgan thought about that for a minute. And then, she said, “Mommy and me go play in the mall later.”

“Okay, yeah. Perfect. Just like that, baby.” Tony hugged her again, his heartbeat still racing.

She was okay.

…

“Daddy?”

Oh, God, those eyes were going to be the death of him. Tony got down on his knees, leaned against his daughter’s bed, and brushed away Morgan’s bangs from her eyes.

“Yes?”

She smiled toothily at him. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Tony replied ever so simply.

But to Morgan, who was only 2 years old and 7 months, it wasn’t that simple.

She wrinkled her nose. “Two? Like number two?” She lifted up three fingers.

“Exactly like number two,” said Tony, tucking one of the fingers down. He raised two fingers of his own. “Because I love you two times.”

Morgan giggled. “I love you one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine... ten!”

Pretending to be overwhelmed, Tony clutched at his chest. “That’s a lot!”

Morgan nodded, proud of herself. “I can count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, Daddy!”

“I can see that. We should start learning bigger numbers, huh?”

Her smile broke. “What’s bigger numbers?”

“Well, bigger numbers mean so many, many, many, many, _many_ I love yous.”

Her eyes grew wide and she sat up, excited, “I want to learn now!”

“Tomorrow,” Tony said to her, pulling her back to lie on the bed.

“Why?” she pouted and if Tony wasn’t careful, she’d reel him in with those eyes.

“Because it’s sleeping time and we sleep during sleeping time.”

“When is numbers time?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

Tony leaned in and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “Good night, Morgan.”

“Good night, Daddy. I love you ten.”


End file.
